Meet RAWx | Luis Garcia Grech, Orin Torati, Santiago Ceballos, and Dana Shaviv

We had the good fortune of connecting with RAWx – Luis Garcia Grech, Orin Torati, Santiago Ceballos, and Dana Shaviv and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi RAWx, how do you think about risk?
We’re a team of four architects, who have spent years designing physical spaces. But here’s the thing—we believe the most profound architecture exists in fiction more so than in practice. With a shared sense of an untapped creative outlet, we dreamt of architecting not just buildings, but the very fabric of stories.

Our new blueprint? A world-building based production studio. The site? Los Angeles—the epicenter of storytelling and film. L.A. is no empty lot. It’s a labyrinth of industry insiders, unspoken rules, and a culture as complex as any metropolis. And us? We’re the new kids, without so much as a back-of-the-napkin sketch to guide us.

So, the million-dollar question hit us like a spotlight: Do we really roll into the City of Angels and set up our own production studio, newcomers taking on Hollywood veterans?

Hell yeah. Our outsider perspective is our superpower.

Once we started, the universe conspired to test our mettle, leading us to projects that evoked our experimental nature. A client approached us with the opportunity to design and produce an immersive digital world for a pornography brand. Too risky?

Nah, we are provocateurs!

Besides, it’s a unique opportunity to design a world for maximum joy and pleasure, the epitome of intense emotion. The architects and storytellers inside us need to explore this.

Meanwhile, a person we meet at an event makes video games that teach the bible, and he might have a project for us. Amazing! It will look great on our portfolio next to a Tom of Finland project we made for the world’s largest erotic art fair.

These risks—from erotic art to biblical games—have shaped our identity as a studio that fearlessly explores the full spectrum of human experience. Humanity isn’t neatly divided into sacred and profane, public virtue and private desire. We contain multitudes, and RAW dares to embrace them all. The real risk would have been thinking these worlds were too far apart to bridge.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
RAW is a worldbuilding-based 3D production house. Simply put, we use creative technology to create immersive worlds for brands spanning commercial campaigns, music videos, films, experimental exhibitions, and beyond.

We’re not mere executors of prescribed visions. Our multidisciplinary team of directors, designers, and storytellers operates at the avant-garde intersection of speculation, cultural foresight, and cutting-edge visual production mastery.

As such, a music video for us isn’t just a one-off marketing piece – rather an opportunity to fully explore and extrapolate the core visual language of the artist. We manifest what makes that musical artist unique – their symbolic language, influences, and psychologies represent their inner creative universe. The same holistic approach is applied to work we do with brands or as we translate the words of a script into the visual counterpart of a film.

What sets us apart is our outsider mentality combined with an ethos of constant experimentation. Whether dreaming up future tech-wear for a fashion label or a metaphysical journey through a musician’s psyche, we apply a fundamental curiosity about the depths of human desire and emotion.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Visiting an auction house is a great way to get to know Los Angeles. The items reveal the city’s rich history and culture. Moreover, it’s an excellent platform to meet interesting people. If you’re lucky, you might even stumble upon a rare find. We especially love the Van Eaton Galleries Auctions and their Disney collections. But first, we have to start our days with coffee! Some of our favorite spots include Clark Street Echo Park, Broome St. General Store, and Cafe Nido.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
If there’s one person who deserves a massive shoutout in our story, it’s Liam Young. He helped carve out a map of the industry and continues to be our mentor through our worldbuilding journey. RAW is a product of the Fiction and Entertainment Masters Degree at SCI-Arc, which Liam created as a supportive network of creatives.

Website: rawxworld.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rawx_____

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/raw-worlds/ 

Image Credits
Group Photo: Alicia Afshar